St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN)—Premier Mark Brantley has sought to clarify concerns surrounding payments to bands participating in this year’s Culturama celebrations.
The issue came to the fore after some bands reportedly boycotted the festival over payment arrangements. At a recent press conference, Brantley addressed the concerns raised by the band.
“If you have your talent and you wish to showcase your talent, Culturama is the biggest stage available. This year, we had a situation where one of the bands, for the second year, boycotted the Culturama. For the second year, we went and advised, we invited of course all the bands, and their position was that they wanted a specific payment plan. They wanted money at a particular time and the balance by a particular time. And if they could not get that, then they would not participate. The government could not guarantee that. I think everybody knows that when they deal with government, as we said, the money is sure, but sometimes it takes a little while, because a lot of it is dependent on our cash flow. And we knew that if we made that commitment to one band, we’d have to make it to every other vendor. And so we could not meet the demand, we explained, but the band said, no money, no love.”
Brantley said some bands ultimately decided not to participate after determining that the arrangements were not favourable to them.
“You can’t pay us what we want, how we want it, we will not participate. That is my understanding. And so that band, for the second year, decided to stay out of Culturama. The government can’t do anything about that misbudgeting. The other band, big band, is the core band, as far as I understand, and I’m not sure what happened with them this year, but again, the door is open. So whether you’re Odyssey, Core, Ultimate, DVX, or any new band that comes aboard, the government here in Nevis is 100% supportive. But we require partnership. People cannot expect to just come and demand money and say this has to be the way, and that is just not how it works. And so we want our people to understand.”
He said bands from St. Kitts have partnered with the Nevis Island administration and encouraged local bands in Nevis to explore similar opportunities to build their audiences and expand their reach.
“They brought, of course, their fans across with them, and some say it was one of the best jubilees that they’ve seen in a very long time, right here in Nevis. So we want our bands, but I go further to say that our bands in Nevis, and I don’t say this as a knock on them, I recognise that it’s a difficult business to be in, but our bands in Nevis need to have a developmental pathway for themselves. They cannot, as some have been doing, simply wait for Culturama time each year to bring out music or to play someplace.”
The premier is also encouraging bands to take advantage of the Culturama village as another opportunity to promote their music and generate income during the festival.
“You can’t fault the government for that. I have said to the bands in Nevis, we have plug and play facilities like the Culturama village. The government is prepared to make the village available for free. For free. Come, build an audience, release music, have events. I see in St. Kitts all kinds of birthday bashments and this, that, and the other, and the bands in St. Kitts are always busy. You cannot wait each year for Culturama, and that’s the only time people hear from you. You can’t build an audience that way. And I don’t know what the difficulties are.
I invite them to come in and have a chat if it is that there are things that we can do.”
Brantley also outlined the support being provided to bands participating in Culturama.
“Interestingly, I heard Mr Renaldon Bartlett from DVX Band on a show recently, and he was commenting on the difference between St. Kitts and Nevis and saying that in Nevis, the level of support, financial support that the government gives for bands to be on the road is nonexistent in St. Kitts. In Nevis, we pay for the truck, trailer, generator, we pay to build up the, the, whatever the band is, what is that, the trailer it’s called? We carry all of the expenses associated with having bands on the road in Nevis, and we pay the bands to be on the road. In St. Kitts, I’m told, the bands in St. Kitts have to find their own money, have to find sponsors if they want to be on the road. Now the difference that some have pointed out is that in St. Kitts, they get a larger reward if they win the road march. I think the amount on there was $25,000, right, if they win the road march. This is what my understanding is. But I will tell you, I will tell you, it will be cheaper for us to do that in Nevis, and don’t help any of the bands to be on the road. So if we did what St. Kitts did, we would have to come up with a large cash prize for the winner, but it would mean that the bands have to raise their own money.”
